Fresh spring plantings to spruce up your garden

Learn to Garden: A Practical Introduction to Gardening opens with a pair of chapters titled "The Garden You Want" and "The Garden You've Got," and can equip the new gardener with the skills needed to transform the one into the other. There are answers to questions a novice might be terribly curious about but afraid to ask: Why in the world is she tipping that nursery...

Love your lawn

In my previous garden, I had been doing my best to colonize the grass for more ornamental plantings. I've been in gardens that had already evolved a long way in that direction I'm thinking in particular of one garden in North Carolina where what was once a sweep of suburban lawn had evolved into a labyrinth of berms and island beds. But most of us don't want to do without a lawn entirely, and...

Getting all the answers

In the past, most people learned crafts from a friend or family member. They taught the new crafter basic stitches and were nearby to help when he or she got stuck working on a new project. These days, people teach themselves crafts a lot more often, which means there is no wise expert on call to solve problems that can stymie a project and crush a new crafter's confidence. Margaret...

Getting all the answers

In the past, most people learned crafts from a friend or family member. They taught the new crafter basic stitches and were nearby to help when he or she got stuck working on a new project. These days, people teach themselves crafts a lot more often, which means there is no wise expert on call to solve problems that can stymie a project and crush a new crafter's confidence. Edie Eckman's The...

Keep it simple

Those who want a more traditional reference guide to cleaning challenges will enjoy the perky advice and attractive design of Cleaning Plain and Simple. Donna Smallin, author of Organizing Plain and Simple, is an expert on the clean and organized life ( clean smarter not harder ), and her handbook is a sparkling example of how a well-ordered space can help you live better. Smallin recognizes...

Indoor greenery

Apparently, Prince Charles was right: talking to plants isn't barmy. As it turns out, however, it's not the words of encouragement that keep the primroses blooming, but the huff of breath while talking to and watering houseplants that helps those routine-lovers adjust to changing wind conditions around the house and garden. This and many other rich tidbits in The Complete Houseplant Survival...

Impatient patience

Books that soothe the itch to get back in the dirt Anybody who loves to garden is having a hard time right now. Here in the mid-South, March gives up a few days so mild that I can't help but get outside and dig something. The last frost doesn't come until mid-April, but that never stops me from putting some little thing out that would have preferred to stay inside. I am very, very impatient....

Lights, camera, Christmas!

For a book guaranteed to brighten your perspective, try Holiday Lights! Brilliant Displays to Inspire Your Holiday Celebration, by David Seidman. This glittering celebration of holiday light displays across America captures the wonder and whimsy of these annual eye-catching creations. Seidman's text is augmented with photos of holiday night magic, from remote trailers illuminated by a single...

The noble goal: getting a garden going in the right direction

Right now I'm missing my garden. At the moment it is a bare scene, the color sucked out of it, the dry reeds of last year's fennel rattling in the wind. I came across a photograph I took last April, when I first planted up my little space. The greenness of it all so many sprouts, such happy little boxwoods. It was like finding a baby picture when your child is a teenager when was this ever...

weet dreams: books to help you make friends with the night Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep, usually slips in quietly, delivers his blissful gift of slumber then melts humbly, silently away into the shadows of the night. But the gods can be contrary. Though you offer up countless sheep trying to entice his arrival, sometimes Hypnos is nowhere to be found, leaving you alone, agitated and wide-eyed...